Ministry of Health and Welfare completes restructuring

TOTAL CARE:The new ministry will integrate health and social welfare resources at both the local and central level to build an all-compassing social security network

By Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Chang Feng-yee, left, Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Wen-ta, second left, and Deputy Minister Lin Tzou-yien unveil a new plaque at the CDC in Taipei yesterday.

Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times

The official restructuring of the Department of Health as the Ministry of Health and Welfare was completed yesterday, with the integration of resources and the establishment of the Social and Family Affairs Administration and the Department of Social Insurance being the major changes made, the ministry said.

The Bureau of National Health Insurance has become the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) and the Bureau of Health Promotion is now the Health Promotion Administration.

The Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration will keep the names, but are now a notch higher in the bureaucratic hierarchy.

Other notable changes are the incorporation of the Social and Family Affairs Administration and the Department of Social Insurance.

The former has integrated the bodies that are in charge of the welfare of women, senior citizens and people with disabilities that were previously under the Ministry of Interior’s Department of Social Affairs, as well as the Child Welfare Bureau, which was also previously under the interior ministry.

The goal of the administration is the implementation of a family and community-centered total care system, the agency said.

The social insurance department, on the other hand, has been restructured to have a better and more comprehensive grip on the three major social insurances, the NHI, the national pension and long-term care insurance.

The integration of resources made possible by the restructuring, among other tasks, is “to break the cycle of poverty-made illness and illness-made poverty and to provide better care for elderly people in an aging society,” the ministry said.

That is to be achieved by strengthening social insurance, developing a long-term care system, building healthcare and welfare clouds for comprehensive care, upgrading medical services in rural areas and connecting the public health and social resources provided at the central level and those at the local level to build an all-encompassing social security network, the ministry said.